Irkutsk Ch. 23

Again I was sitting up in the hole, facing the wall. I was able to wriggle my arms out again, and finally I made it through, recklessly forcing myself out until I was lying free on the ground next to the hole. As I did I thanked Angéle and Maria and all my Ladies for their emotional support, albeit from a distance.

I was bleeding in several places, but none of the scratches was serious, and I decided that I would remain naked for a little longer to allow the wounds to stop bleeding, so my clothes wouldn't become sticky with blood. It felt good being free, but I didn't want to be recaptured immediately, and there were some things I needed to do as soon as possible. I went around to the door and found that it was secured with padbolts at the top and bottom, well away from the barred window and protected from access via the window by large flanges.

In a moment I was back inside my prison, shoveling the dirt back into the hole as quickly as I could. Every few handfuls I pushed the loose dirt across toward the outside but even so, when I had stamped the earth down flat, there was quite a bit left over.

I emptied today's food from the bag and scooped handfuls of dirt into it, then carried it out and emptied it into the hole from outside. After six bagfuls, the outside hole was full, but I stamped it down enough to get another two bags emptied. The remaining dirt all fitted into the bag, and I left that just inside the door. Soon that, too, was full, and the last few handfuls had to be stamped down there.

I replaced the two intact tiles, and reassembled the larger parts of the broken tile so that the floor was all slate again. I rubbed dirt over the broken slate so the breaks were not too obvious, and then I replaced the paillasse back over them. The room looked almost normal again.

I went back outside, and placed a few pieces of vegetation over the bare patch, and decided that was all I could do to cover my escape route.

I went back in to collect the remaining food, stashing it in yesterday's bag. I quickly got back into my now very dirty clothes, making sure this time that I was properly dressed. I had a drink and left my prison for what I hoped would be the last time. I closed the padbolts, wondering what my captors would think of my disappearance. And then I set off, first moving away from the road.

I decided my best bet would be to follow the road at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, so no-one driving along the road would be able to see me. However, this was not as easy as I had thought. Sometimes I unexpectedly found that I was only a few feet from the road. At other times, more worryingly, I went off into the distance and nearly lost the road entirely. The road was the only landmark in the entire countryside. I then decided my only option was to walk along the road, hoping that I would be able to get under cover before I was seen by any oncoming car. I was able to make much better time on the road, even though it was rough and corrugated.

As it happened, I needn't have worried about traffic. I must have walked for ten kilometres without seeing a single car or any sign of humanity other than the road I was following. The sun was again well past its highest point when I saw a few buildings ahead. I moved a little way off the road for a rest and to have a bit to eat, and to stretch my tired legs. Or that was what I told myself - what I really needed was time to think. Might I find help here? Or would I be recaptured and put back in my prison with greater security? I might be handcuffed this time, or a guard might remain with me.

On the other hand, I had no idea how much further on the next place might be, and that, too, might be the wrong place. Also, I didn't think I would be in very good condition after a night out in the open - I had been very cold the previous night even inside the cell, with a mattress (of sorts) and with blankets. Now I had only my clothes. I had to try this place.

I carefully worked my way around to the other side of this collection of buildings - village was too dignified a word for it - to a spot well away from the road. I thought this might be the direction from which my captors, if they were here, would be least likely to expect me to arrive. In addition, there was a slight rise in this direction, so I had a better view of the place. It didn't occur to me at the time that it also gave anyone there a better view of me.

I thought I was doing well until a man appeared from behind one of the ramshackle buildings. He looked familiar, but I couldn't be sure at this distance and with the sun behind him. It was obvious he had seen me - he was looking directly at me. I was trying to work out which way to run when I heard a trail bike start up. And then I saw it appear on the other side of the building. The rider wasn't wearing a helmet, but that was not unusual in this land. And there was a rifle slung beside the saddle. In no time the bike was right upon me, passing the bush that I had been hiding behind.

To this day I try, unsuccessfully, to replay in my mind what happened next. In a bizarre impossibility a branch of the bush seemed to swing out in front of the rider. What I can remember is that he was knocked from his bike. The bike just brushed me as it plunged on a few more yards before falling over and spinning on the ground. The rider just lay on his back, seemingly stunned. He reminded me of a beetle on its back.

As I was standing there staring stupidly at the man, motionless on his back, I heard a faint "tssss!" coming from the bush. I turned towards it and another branch moved, just an inch. I saw the top half of a face...Astra's face... winking at me, before the branch moved back and I was left to wonder if my imagination was playing tricks on me. Then a soft voice, "Wait here until the other man comes up." I gave a slight nod, but I have no idea whether she saw.

I stood there feigning ignorance...no, I wasn't feigning it, I was indeed ignorant. The man started up the gentle incline and I waited, obeying and hoping I was doing the right thing.

This man continued his approach until he was standing next to the bush - er, Astra. He actually placed a hand on one of the branches while he sneered at me. "What are you going to do now?"

I looked at him and replied, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I was thinking that I didn't believe it myself. He took another step forward and suddenly the arm that had been touching the branch was twisted up behind his back as he was thrown to the ground.

The bush, still not recognisable as a person, swayed over him and I heard Astra's voice again, a little louder this time. "I don't suppose you were thinking of harming our friend were you?" But the only reply was gasps of pain.

Suddenly another slightly larger bush about ten yards away moved, shed some branches and morphed into Dominika. She went to the bike rider and checked him over. "No problems; just unconscious." She lifted him in her arms and walked down towards the road. Astra appeared out of her bush and nodded towards the bike, now stalled and motionless less than ten feet away. "Grab the rifle will you. It shouldn't be left out in the open." She spoke briefly into a small microphone on her battledress and then lifted up the rider by his twisted arm. It looked painful and he reacted as if it was indeed painful. But, pain or no, he was soon walking - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he was being frogmarched - along behind Dominika and her captive. And then suddenly both had bags over their heads.

Battledress! It wasn't until I thought about it that I realised both Astra and Dominika were wearing camouflage outfits and all exposed skin was painted to match. And yet they were still beautiful. What Ladies! I followed them back towards the road. I would follow them anywhere.

As we stepped onto the road I heard a car, and worried that we might again be outnumbered. But then I saw a huge black car. It was Joseph's Zis, pulling up beside us.

Dominika said briefly, "In the front". I was out of my league (again) and just got in the front. Joseph said hello and shook my hand as Astra and Dominika pushed their bundles into the back and then followed, sitting in the cavernous back seat. Astra told Joseph to keep going.

"But that is a dead end!" said Joseph. Astra merely replied, "Yes." And off we went. I heard nothing from our captives all the way to the end.

We stopped and Astra said, "Open the hut." I jumped out and opened it. Our two jailers were now the jailed, and the door was closed and the padbolts locked.

"Lean the gun at the back." I went around the shed and left the gun there. Without another word begin spoken we returned to the car, Joseph drove around the loop and set off very fast back the other way.

I turned back to my two ladies and asked, "How...?" Both together hissed, "Sssh. Later." I shut up.

When we arrived at the village Joseph screeched to a stop, and Tina got in quickly. In no time we were travelling again at full speed. After a few miles we slowed suddenly and turned down a rough goat track. And again he was up to full speed, the lovely car bouncing and sliding along. A few minutes later he turned onto a much better road, completely straight. I looked forward and saw a huge streamlined aircraft parked on the road - er, runway.

I had been caught unawares throughout most of this episode since my rescue, but I knew my aircraft, and in particular I knew this one even though I had never seen one in the flesh before. It was a Tupolev Tu-160, a supersonic four-seater fighter. I knew it to be capable of over Mach II, or well over 2,000 km/h. I had no time to ask questions - I was being helped into a flight suit and helmet by Dominika and bundled into a hatch. I just had a moment to wave goodbye to Joseph, who was getting into his car. Tina and Astra were already dressed and making their way forwards, and I was virtually carried to a seat behind them. By the time Dominika had me strapped in and was sorting out her own harnesses beside me, the two up front were doing pre-flight checks.

Now I had time to ask Dominika how we had acquired a rare, multi-million dollar, if not billion dollar aircraft. "It's a very early model which has been scheduled to be scrapped. It was never going to be used again, and all the weaponry has been removed. We hope it will last for one more flight. Be careful - it might be a little bumpy. Tina said she'd make the takeoff gentle for you - and for the plane."

In a much shorter time than I had believed possible it seemed the pre-flight checks were complete and we started forwards. I knew Tina was indeed being gentle - I was able to breathe during the acceleration, but in no time we were off the ground, but still accelerating faster than anything I had ever imagined. The noise was much less than I could imagine, no doubt because of the high quality headphones in my helmet.

I could barely see anything outside, so I settled down to trust the Ladies who had never let me down. Suddenly Tina's voice appeared in my ears. "We'll be in the air for about ninety minutes. We'll ditch a few miles ahead of the ship and they can pick us up out of an inflatable as they pass.

This would have seemed a bad idea at any other time, but these Ladies had already done many impossible things today, albeit not before breakfast, and one more wouldn't make much difference. I settled down to do the one thing myself that I would have thought impossible during a first ride in a supersonic aircraft, and slept.

Tina's voice awoke me again. "I'll make two passes. Astra and Michael will eject first. Dominika has a remote for you Michael, so there's no need for you to do anything. Then I'll go around and Dominika and I will follow. We'll try not to land on top of you."

Suddenly Dominika leaned toward me and did something. My life came to an end as the plane disintegrated around me. Or at least that's how it felt. Then there was an enormous jolt and suddenly I was floating in mid-air, still sitting in my seat. I looked up and saw a parachute above me, and then another a little distance away. And then the Tupolev appeared again nearby, almost on the wavetops, and two tiny items exploded out of the top, seconds before it hit the water with a splash worthy of an atom bomb. All this happened in the period of about fifteen seconds before I splashed into the water, and a moment later I was bobbing about in the waves.

I wasn't quite sure what to do now, but after a little while I saw a large inflatable puttering towards me, with what looked almost like a spaceman sitting at the tiller. The spaceman shed its spacesuit and Astra appeared, still in her camouflage outfit and still wearing her khaki makeup. She assisted me out of my floating chair and into the inflatable, and then puttered off to where two other strange creatures were floating nearby. Once all four of us were in the boat I was helped out of my outfit and we sat there in the boat. One of our group was by now very confused, while Astra, Tina and Dominika sat there as if they did it every day.

Astra checked some device or other a few times, then turned off the motor. We were drifting at sea, with nothing in sight except the sea and the sky. And then the questions started. Tina wanted to know how I had been, so I told me story first. There wasn't much to tell except for my escape from the hut, and when I had finished I wanted to know one thing - how had they known where to find me?

Dominika looked a little embarrassed. "Do you remember the first day with us, and what we did to you?" My mind went back to the two (then) unknown ladies who had jumped on me the night I had arrived at their home, and the not entirely pleasant activities of the following day. I had been tattooed, and a tracking device implanted... I looked at Dominika, "Can that be tracked from such a distance?"

"No," Dominika replied, "...it is good for a maximum of about fifty miles. We tried to keep up as you left the ship, but then we lost you. We guessed you'd be somewhere near the nearest Russian territory, which is around Vladivostok, so we went there and tracked you. Hana helped by telling us something of your experience so we could draw some conclusions about the type of environment you were in. Luck played a part too, because we switched our receiver on when we were landing on the coast about a hundred kilometres east and a little north of Vladivostok. You came in loud and strong on the first try. Your hut was only about five kilometres from there. Chris made several phone calls from the ship and called in a few favours. By the time we were able to collect it the plane was waiting for us. We had to fly under a hundred feet to avoid radar, and that reduced our maximum speed, but we were able to travel at Mach 1.5 once we were away from land."

She had a funny look on her face, and I asked, "Are you OK?" Tina replied, "We were worried if you're OK. You seem a little - withdrawn. Have we upset you?"

I explained that the last few days, but especially the last few hours, had left me a little stunned. I had thought of my Ladies as angels, but they were clearly also superm ...superwomen...

Astra butted in. "We are a team. We can achieve what we achieve because of you. If we're superwomen it's because you are with us - even when you are miles away." She kissed me and they all kissed me, and we held hands and started to recount details and anecdotes of the last few days. Time passed quickly now and I have no idea how long it was before Tina looked up over my head and said, "I think this is our ride."

I turned and saw the enormous bow of a ship - our ship - towering over us. And almost directly above a long row of heads looked down upon us. As the ship slowly slid closer I saw a rope ladder hanging down the starboard side, moving closer.

Dominika went first, then me, and Tina and lastly Astra. In no time the four of us were back on deck, faced by everyone on board. In front were the three ladies who had kept me company in my solitude: Hana, Angéle and Maria. I looked at them, wonderingly. Without anyone saying a word I knew that they knew exactly what I had been through. Not just what had happened to me, but my own inner feelings about that experience.

Maria looked up at me, a little timidly, "Now you know you can never get away from us. Even without the electronic tracker we'd have been able to find you eventually through our psychic link." She didn't need to say it for me, or for the rest of the Brigade. It gave the ship's crew and the few other passengers a bit of a surprise, however, to learn that our relationship was somewhat more than they had guessed.

The captain wanted to speak next. "I know you were kidnapped from my ship a few days ago, and I was told you'd been taken back to Russia. Then I was told that you had been released this afternoon. How your wife knew I cannot say - no radio signal has been received since this morning. So how can you appear floating in the path of my ship?"

Tina looked at him. "Some friends flew us down and dropped us off here."

His face was a study. Disbelief dominated, but there were many other emotions. Clearly he believed Tina - in fact there was no other way we could have been where we were. What he didn't believe was his own eyes. He just chivvied his crew back to their stations, slowly shaking his head. The other passengers also dispersed, leaving me alone with my Ladies. Back where I belonged.

Slowly we ambled back to our suite. Very little was said - we all knew what had happened, what everyone else was feeling, what everyone else was thinking. We just wanted to be close. And we were close.